The Labor enquirer., 1887-04-02

1 >~r = - 41NA1AkIU
| lsass men somewhat non excsaaivs teIl
| and thev ca1 devote come 4 thslr dine
70 the cultvahon Of thar hIsAsr na-
tara"
The dreams of tho most iauguins
have bssn realised. Ineenious invsn-
tiens. do I thous4nd things which for
msrly we're dole|by hand. We have
the steAmship. perfected printinx pre-,
railways. telegraph. tslsphons and :
thousand good thlnp among tho indus.
trial arss, but IL The average man made
any bettsri
The traveller can 20 from New York 10
Liverpool IA seven days. but whom be
arrives We fihd Mn no better Of than 4
| It had taken him . month. He ON tall
across the ocean or to his neighbor In
the next town, but he has nothing wiser
to say than whom he sent his letter BY 4
sailing packet orths penny post.
Again, much was hoped from the ad-
vance Of modern politics. "Let there
be freedom of spssch: let there b sx.
tension Of suffrage were ths watch.
words Of reformers. Well. SURELY there
has been sufficient freedom Of spssch[2].
Governments can lbe freely criticised /;
newspapers and political pamphlets
flood the land, and stump speakers thor
oughly canvass the country before each
election; but this political freedom has
not by any means led to the expscte
results. It has led to quite different re-
suits. Ma.
propose to show some Of the unex-
pected results Of these two things.
First, they have opened the eyes Of the
great majority to what is. The people
are BEGINNING to ask questions ON all
sorts Of subjects, economic. political. 80
cial and religious. They want to know
why things are % they are. The news
paper and the cheap book have made
them more or less acquainted with Rus
kin. Emerson. Wendell Phillips. Tureen.
ief and Henry George. These writers
have been talking about progress. hu-
man rights. equality. the oppression oi
the few, the wrongs Of the many and the
supreme power Of the people. While 60
talking they have had numerous hear
ers; more than they thought. The
masses of the people are now beginning
to say: "If this is so we want our
rights; We have been defrauded long
enough; We want to enter into our in
heritance."
This cry Of desire is not new. It has
been heard in every century, but it can
not be quieted in this nineteenth CEN
tury as it could be in the eighteenth or
seventeenth. In those centuries when
the questioner came to to the church
asking "why do we suffer-" it was
answered, 1T is the will Of God" That
was enough. Kings ruled by divine
right, dynasties continued "by the grace
Of God," property in land was a sacred
inheritance descending from father to
son among the fortunate ones.
Such were the old time theories. To-
dav they are all being questioned. The
people are getting suspicion that
neither nature, fate. God nor anything
else except selfish men at the top are
responsible for the worst ills which op.
press them, hence they naturally look
upon existing institutions as good for
the few, bad for the many. They desire
change.
So in all things the people are going
to the root Of the matter. They ask
questions which the old.fashioned stere.
otyped answers will not fit. neither can
they be so easily caught BY the politi.
clans method of going round and getting
drink or . cigar.
Sugar plums of any sort won't do.
They want a steady supply Of roast beef.
They feel, whether rightly or wrongly,
that they have been robbed of privi-
leges and they are not willing to suffer
any more in dull silence.
1 have been set thinking with renewed
earnestness on this subject by an article
which appears In the February number
Of the Nineteenth Century MAGAZINE,
copied in the American reprint, and
read extensively in this country It is
entitled the Scientific Basis of Anarch-
ISM" It is the first time I have seen
in any one Of the better magazines an
out and out defense Of the system called
Anarchism. When such articles COM
mence to be written and read it is time
for Us the leaders Of thought to take
notice of them and consider whether
their influence is helpful or harmful.
This is the way our Anarchist writer
talks: n
"Who dares say that our present Or
9anization is just 7 In consequence Of
this monstrous organization the son of a
workman when he is able to work finds
no acre to till no machine to set in mo.
ton unless he agrees to sell his labor
for sum inferior to its real value. His
father and grandfather contributed in
draining the field or erecting the fac
tories to the full extent Of their capaci-
ties, but he comes into the world more
destitute than a savage. If he resorts
| IN a0ricultur0 h0 will he nNrmitfad IN